More protein or less?

Confused about what you should eat?

If you weren’t confused that would be more of a surprise. Most headlines are misleading and many of the stories don’t include the details that would help you sort through the relevant findings to make informed decisions. 

These are two research articles that came out this past week that prove this to be true.

The first study claims that More protein and fewer calories help older people lose weight safely and the second, Study shows why high-protein diets are unhealthy.

Let’s start with more protein.

Most people need about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight of protein in their daily diets. Endurance athletes up to 1.2 grams/kilogram. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, growing children need different amounts, but for most adults about 1.0 gram per kilogram is more than enough. For the record men should eat about 2000 – 2400 calories a day and women between 1600 – 2000 calories a day with 15 – 25% of those calories being from protein.

What are we actually eating?

Most Americans now eat about 3770 calories a day and twice the amount of protein that they need. It is very hard to eat to little protein, it is everywhere and in everything. Even on a plant-based diet it is hard to eat too little protein. The only people who need to worry about protein consumption are people who don’t eat enough calories.

Does more protein help with weight loss?

In the weight loss study the high protein diet group ate 1.0 gram per kilogram of body weight, that is much less than what most people eat daily. This study only had 96 adults and while the headline looks good, the details aren’t really that impressive and essentially proved that people over 65 could lose weight on a calorie restricted diet.

Are high protein diets unhealthy?

This study builds on previous research that has found that eating fewer calories increases longevity. One of the reasons that strict plant-based diets are so healthy is that they are low calorie, even though they might be high volume.

The research published in Current Biology proved that increased nutrients speed up the cell division, increasing the number of errors that the cells makes when it divides. 

Professor Christopher Proud at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute states,

“”Science has known for some time that eating too much, in particular protein, reduces lifespan and now we know why. Our findings show how lower protein consumption could promote longevity in people.”

The facts.

While we need some protein, we generally eat too much of it and of everything else too. To improve your health and longevity eat fewer calories and less protein.

There was another study on cell performance published this week showing that calorie restriction can prevent diseases associated with ageing. This study, presented this week in London, found that dietary changes and reduced calorie intake, reduced the likelihood that diseases associated with ageing would occur. Reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s, cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. All chronic diseases associated with high calorie diets.

If it seems too difficult to eat much less, than switching to a plant-based diet makes it easier to eat fewer calories while consuming more food.

It almost sounds too good to be true.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla